The United States of Manufactured Hysteria

Click here to access article by CJ Hopkins from CounterPunch. (satire)

Thank God for the Charlottesville Nazis! For a moment there, it was looking like we were actually going to have a few days to stop and reflect on the state of America without being subjected to some new form of manufactured mass hysteria. Seriously, just a few short weeks ago, as the corporatist ruling classes’ ridiculous attempt to convince the world that Donald Trump is some sort of Russian sleeper agent appeared to be finally fizzling out, a significant number of leftist types were beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the fact that the United States government is controlled by a global corporate plutocracy that has no allegiance to any nation, or people, or to anything other than itself, and that is in the process of demonizing and potentially deposing an elected president...that maybe that might be something to focus on, not exclusively, by any means, but alongside other vital issues, like defending the rights of transgender drone pilots and purging syllabi of oppressive pronouns.

The true anti-semites, past and present

Click here to access article by Jonathan Cook from his Blog from Nazareth.

Cook examines the latest attempt to smear the new British Labor party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, with the Empire's favorite brush of "antisemitism" that Empire agents frequently uses against their adversaries. His examination takes us behind the history of antisemitism that offers a new understanding of how it all began. From there he concludes with Finkelstein's argument that...

the “new anti-semitism” canard is likely – and possibly intended – to fuel the very anti-semitism that it claims to be exposing and challenging.

Climate Denial's Ugly Side: Hate Mail to Scientists

Click here to access article by Katherine Bagley and Naveena Sadasivam from Inside Climate News. 

While fervent public mistrust of established science is not unique to climate change ..., the level of cruelty of climate harassment is alarming, and is also largely a U.S. phenomenon.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center shows that only 45 percent of Americans—compared to 54 percent of people worldwide (and nearly 100 percent of working U.S. climate scientists)—believe climate change is a serious problem. Among Republicans, that percentage falls to 20 percent.

Open Letter. Please Stop the Hate

Click here to access article by Rowan Wolf from Uncommon Thought Journal.

In our era of globalization we see the same fear/hate methods used by capitalist elites everywhere in the world to control people. We in the USA are certainly no exception to this pattern. One recent illustration of this is the use of fear and hate to promote terrorism targeting Planned Parenthood facilities.

All the hype and repetition aside, the “videos” of the supposed “horrendous” acts of Planned Parenthood are hoaxes. They are cobbled together, and highly edited, to create a story that is not true. Our political leaders (and wanna be leaders) know this, yet some keep pointing to them to rouse us to anger and pull us to support them. Now someone has decided to take justice for a fabricated crime into their own hands in Colorado Springs and 3 people lie dead … because of the lies. [my link]

We have all seen the horror of the attacks in Paris. This has been taken up by some political leaders (and wanna be leaders) to fear monger the population.

Is Charlie Hebdo a Western Hate-Machine?

Click here to access article by Ahmed Rajeev (Bangladesh) from Oriental Review. 

[Charlie Hebdo] is a Western tool to promote psychopathic hatred among different racial and cultural groups in the name of “freedom of expression” to serve geopolitical purposes of their masters. 

Left: Daesh: Russia’s aviation intensifies its bombardments. Right: The dangers of low-cost Russia. I should have taken Air Cocaine.

FOX Prefers Fabrication to Fact When It Comes to Muslims

Click here to access article by Richard Zombeck from Huffington Post.

"We need to kill them," she insisted. "We need to kill them. The radical Muslim terrorists hell bent on killing us.

"You're in danger, I'm in danger," the fear mongering diatribe continued. "This is not going to stop."

,,,"Bomb them, bomb them and bomb them again,"....

The propaganda organs of the Empire are going full blast with their efforts to exploit the recent terrorist event in Paris. Fox media is only the worst as depicted in this liberal source. Here is a sample of the vicious propaganda that Americans who watch Fox News are fed:



I should not be surprised if this reminds historically aware people of Kristallnacht. 

Liberté D´Expression? [Freedom of Expression?]

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

It seems that the French freedom of expression applies to only some people who use religious bigotry to attack opponents of the Empire. 

Crime (Israel) and punishment (Russia)

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online. 

He uses the Orwellian "Two Minutes Hate" as a metaphor describing the Empire's policies toward Russia.

Not even Hollywood could come up with such a plot; Israel gets away with unlawful premeditated mass murder of civilians, while Russia gets framed for a (smaller-scale) airborne mass murder of civilians that has all the makings of being set up by the Kiev vassals of Russia's Western "partners". 

.... Let's follow the facts. 

And this perceptive Brazilian journalist has some interesting and depressing insights on the outcome of the inspection of the "black boxes" from the downed Malaysian Airlines MH17, the US and expected European sanctions against Russia, and where it all might lead.

Israel’s War Against Gaza’s Women & Their Bodies

Click here to access article by David Sheen from Muftah. 

Sheen, a reporter for a liberal Israeli publication, provides more evidence in addition to what Jerome Roos reported in his recent article that, indeed, many Israelis are becoming dehumanized by their government's campaign of brutalization of Palestinians.

As Israel’s latest assault on Gaza enters its third week, the destructive force unleashed upon the Strip has taken a massive toll, leaving over 650 Palestinians dead, over 4,200 wounded – mostly civilians – and over a hundred thousand homeless. As Gaza is pummeled, the level of anti-Palestinian racist incitement from top Israeli political, religious and cultural figures continues to ring at peak pitch, and has taken on a dangerous misogynistic tone.

Coalgate: The Gateway Pacific Terminal Scandal

Click here to access article by Jay Taber from Intercontinental Cry Magazine.

In the area where I live a major issue is the construction of a major coal terminal to export coal. Indigenous people of the Northwest are leading the opposition to this project. They have a long history of destruction of their livelihoods at the hands of European settlers and are now being threatened once again with coal-related pollution that is threatening their fishing economy which is vital to their way of life. Corporation funded actions are appearing everywhere to meet this opposition to a coal terminal. Corporations are even promoting an Indian hate campaign and targeting journalists who report on their nefarious activities.

On February 5, 2014, Gateway Pacific Terminal consultant Craig Cole sent a letter to Whatcom Watch editor Richard Jehn threatening a lawsuit for publishing Robson’s January 2014 article that exposed the convergence of Peabody Coal, Pacific International Terminals, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and the Tea Party with Citizens Equal Rights Alliance as a looming threat to Lummi Nation and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.... Cole’s threat against investigative journalists like Robson and myself might not matter to passive readers, but for those that put their lives on the line against the portentous movements in America intent on promoting interracial discord and a growing politics of fear, it matters a lot.

Final Solutions: Human nature, Capitalism, and Genocide

Click here to access this review (reviewer is Neil Faulkner) of a new book by the above title authored by Sabby Sagall posted on CounterFire (Britain).

Sabby Sagall, a former senior lecturer in sociology at the University of East London and a lifelong revolutionary activist, was prompted to write Final Solutions by the approaching sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in 2005. He was persuaded to expand the remit to genocide in general, and the result, seven years in the writing, is a comprehensive survey of relevant Marxist and Freudian theories along with four excellent case-studies covering the Native American, Armenian, Nazi, and Rwandan Holocausts.

Military Sexual Violence: From Frontline to Fenceline

Click here to access article by Annie Isabel Fukushima and Gwyn Kirk from Foreign Policy in Focus.

To locate the root of the problem means looking beyond the assaults on U.S. military women—appalling as they are—to the routine incidents of military violence against civilians in combat situations and outside the fences surrounding U.S. bases overseas. Given their mission, soldiers are trained to kill. This means seeing “others” as foreign or less-than-human. Gender and masculinity are at play; so too are racism and national chauvinism.

Military training is perfect preparation, and enhancement of previous civilian indoctrination, to view women as mere objects of sexual gratification which is a form of dehumanization. One cannot kill, or rape, another human being without dehumanizing that human being. Hence, words like gooks, ragheads, cunts, etc reflect this process.

Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!

Click here to access article by David Graeber from The Anarchist Library. 

Take Graeber's test to find out if you are an (shudder!) anarchist! You may not want to take the test; because if you, indeed, are an anarchist, you must be prepared to be excommunicated by much of American society that has been taught that anarchists are right up there on the list of America's enemies along with Muslims, terrorists, rapists, and child molesters.

Hollywood stirs Middle East plot

Click here to access article by Christof Lehmann from Asia Times Online.

In this article the author raises a question to which he offers an answer.

The low budget movie that by ridiculing Islam triggered violent protests throughout the Middle East and the storming of US embassies raises the question of whether the explosive reactions to such insults are really caused by a few Mohammed cartoons, as in 2006, and cheap movies, which very few in the West had even heard of before the protests they apparently create.

Sinister September: Zionist Anti-Islam Plot Simmering

Click here to access article by Ismail Salami from The Palestine Chronicle.

More than the recent film, the author writes about all the current and recent efforts of anti-Islamists and Zionists to defame Islam which mainstream media mostly ignores. He paints a much larger, more serious picture that suggests an international campaign.

...western mainstream media try to deceive public opinion and interpret the making of the film in the light of freedom of speech. Hurting the sentiments of over one billion Muslims across the world does not fit in the definition of freedom of speech. In fact, it is an affront not only to all the Muslims but also to believers of all faiths and religions.

Meet The Right-Wing Extremist Behind Anti-Muslim Film That Sparked Deadly Riots

Click here to access article by Max Blumenthal from his blog.

The US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three US diplomats were killed in attacks and rioting provoked by an obscure, low-budget anti-Muslim film called “The Innocence of Muslims.” The producer of the film is a real estate developer supposedly named “Sam Bacile” who claims to be an Israeli Jew. Bacile told the AP the film was made with $5 million raised from “100 Jewish donors.” He said he was motivated to help his native country, Israel, by exposing the evils of Islam.

I'm thinking how interesting this article is after listening this morning to NPR and TV coverage of the attacks on US diplomats. Strange (sarcasm) that they didn't mention anything about the film other than linking it to the cause of the riot and the attack. However, just now accessing NPR's website I notice that they ran an article about the film on their website. But, I still doubt that they will report this information in subsequent broadcasts.

But wait! Here are other views about this film that need to be considered.

A Culture of Hatred in Israel

Click here to access article by Paul R. Pillar from The National Interest.

The author is a retired CIA officer.

Two incidents last week underscored how broadly and deeply in Israeli society runs a streak of hatred against Palestinian Arabs. In one, seven Israeli teenagers, including two girls—one thirteen years old—were arrested for what witnesses described as an attempted lynching in West Jerusalem of several Palestinian youths, one of whom was beaten unconscious and is still hospitalized. In the same hospital lies one of the victims of the other incident: the Palestinian driver of a taxi that was firebombed near a West Bank settlement.

FBI training material portrays Islam as an indicator of terrorist activity

Click here to access article by Abdus-Sattar Ghazali from OpEd News. 

The seven-million strong American Muslim community was shocked to know that the FBI has been using anti-Muslim instructors and Islamophobic materials in counterterrorism training.

You can be sure that the ruling class will continue to use every trick in their trickster's book to get American workers to fight against each other in order to divert attention away from them.

An afternoon with the English Defence League

Click here to access article by Laurie Penny from the New Statesman.

The picture this young journalist paints of the rise of racist/cultural hate groups in England is not one I was expecting to see so soon. Could these scenes on the streets of London be the future everywhere in the advanced capitalist countries? As the capitalist managed economy deteriorates, the ruling class would love to see workers turn on each other rather on them, and will do everything they can to encourage such developments. The code word that the elites use is "multi-culturalism" as in "multi-culturalism has failed".

Behind the mounted, armoured cops, you can see St George's flags waving, and you can hear the thump and echo of smokebombs and the chanting of hate-tourists out to scrap with members of another disenfranchised community that happens to look and pray differently. The East end is in lockdown, and there are hundreds of police everywhere. The horses are spooked, and so am I.






Although from a politically liberal perspective, a more detailed understanding of this phenomenon can be obtained by listening to at least the first 10 minutes of this 38:15 minute interview from KPFA radio (Berkeley, CA, USA) interview with John Bowen.

Why have so many European leaders recently proclaimed the failure of multiculturalism? What should we make of their claims, and of the proliferating rhetoric of blame directed against Muslims and other immigrants of color in Europe? John Bowen distinguishes rhetoric from reality in France, Britain and beyond....

Why is kindness conflated with capitulation?

from The Guardian, by columnist Nancy Graham Holm who argues "The only way to diminish violent Islamic fanaticism is to engage in dialogue with kindness and compassion."